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On 15 May 2009, the revised JCP document was released as a Maintenance Release of JSR 215. On 16 June 2009, these changes went into effect for every JSR that was formerly operating under JCP 2.6. This means that a lot of Experts and Specification Leads are having the rules change after they've been working under earlier versions of the process for some time. This page looks to summarize the changes for easy reference. Each change has a short description and a reference to the relevant sections of the process document.

Changes for the general user

Your public comments will be posted publicly, and the Expert Group must respond to such comments before the next EC ballot. Note: if you use the discussion boards on jcp.org provided for this purpose and are not representing a JCP Member who has signed the JSPA 2, the jcp.org Terms of Use address your posts as potential contributions (1.2, 2.3, 3.1, 4.2).

Changes for Expert Group participants

You are responsible to make public feedback on your JSR available for viewing by the public. If the public comments are posted on the jsr-xxx-public discussion board, this is done for you (1.2, 2.3, 3.1).

You are responsible to publicly respond to all public comments on your JSR before the next EC ballot (1.2, 2.3, 3.1).

You are discouraged from marking any of your communications in the Expert Group as /Confidential/ (2.1.1).

You may be asked to continue in the Maintenance phases of the JSR'd development after the Expert Group officially disbands at Final Release (3.5).

If another Expert Group member is being uncooperative or unresponsive, and working with the expert has not worked to resolve the issue, you may escalate to the Executive Committee (2.1.3)

Changes for Specification and Maintenance Leads

You are responsible to make public feedback on your JSR available for viewing by the public. If the public comments are posted on the jsr-xxx-public discussion board, this is done for you (1.2, 2.3, 3.1, 4.2).

You are responsible for ensuring that you and/or your Expert Group publicly responds to all public comments on your JSR before the next EC ballot (1.2, 2.3, 3.1).

You are discouraged from marking any of your communications in the Expert Group as /Confidential/ (2.1.1).

If you are uncooperative or unresponsive, the EC may vote to replace you and/or your Member organization as Specification Lead for your JSR (2.1.3).

The full licenses that you expect to use at Final Release need to be provided to the public as part of the initial JSR proposal. If at any time after that, the licenses you expect to use change, you must make the new licenses available immediately (1.2.1, 2.2.1).

You must provide specific answers to the transparency checklist at JSR proposal and at every stage thereafter (2.2.1).

You may choose to call upon your former Expert Group participants for aid in the Maintenance process after your Final Release has been posted (3.5).

You must provide the terms that will apply to any non jcp.org site that you may use for your Expert Group work, to both the PMO (pmo@jcp.org) and the Executive Committee. These terms must be provided at JSR approval ballot. If at any point after that, the terms change or you decide to use another site, you must provide those terms to the PMO and EC first, so that the EC can approve the change(s).

An Item Exception ballot may be requested by the EC at any point up until the end of the Maintenance Review. If an Item Exception ballot is requested, it is held after the end of Maintenance Review.

Final Release must immediately follow an approved Final Approval Ballot. This means that you must provide all the Final Release materials as part of your Final approval Ballot submission. By extension, this means that you cannot begin your Final Approval Ballot until all of your Final Release materials are ready (3.4)

A Maintenance Release must immediately follow an approved Maintenance Review. This means that you must have all of your Maintenance Release materials ready before the Maintenance Review begins (4.2.2).

In addition to the Change Log, Maintenance Leads must also maintain an Issue log, which lists all publicly suggested changes to the spec and your rationale for including or excluding such changes from your Change Log.

Changes for the Executive Committee

You may call for a ballot to reject terms imposed by the Spec Lead on his Expert Group by using a site other than jcp.org (1.2.1).

You need to review and approve/reject all licenses to which Expert Groups must agree in order to do their work (1.2.1).

You may request a ballot to decide that a Spec Lead is being uncooperative or unresponsive (2.1.3).

You may request an Item Exception Ballot for a Maintenance Review at any point during the Maintenance Review (4.2.2).

You may provide guidance to the community and the PMO by publishing white papers, reports or comments if the EC finds it appropriate (A.3).

Ratified and open election voting happens simultaneously (A.4.3).

Special EC elections will not be held if the relevant ratified or open seat is vacated six months or less before the next election where that seat would be up for ballot (A.4.2).

The PMO welcomes suggestions and requests from the Spec Leads for improvements of this guide and the process: pmo@jcp.org